ONC recently published Public Use File on providers enrolled with Health IT Regional Extension Centers (REC).

We did a quick summary of how many providers were signed up vs. how many achieved meaningful use -- the ultimate (beside job creation) goal of RECs.

Few observations include;

Only 65,509 providers are reported to be at Meaningful Use against the original goal of 100,000. The conversion rate (signed up vs. those at MU) is at 44.8%.

There's 11,170 providers without EHR being documented and another 3,229 noted as "Other". Together, these records represent staggering 21.9% of total records and it's disappointing in the failure of data collection efforts by ONC. Especially with so much marketing and efforts by ONC surrounding data right now.

We did not analyze the "age" of sign ups vs. those reported to be at MU but the percent at MU seems to be fairly low especially given all the support provided by the RECs. In June HITPC meeting, it was reported that 60% of hospitals and 43% of EPs attested to MU. These are NOT AIUs but actual attesting to MU.

With any "data" and subsequent "analysis", even this simple one, one has to be very careful in reading too much or too little into what's being said. As a strong believer in HITECH Act, including RECs, we only wish that ONC would provide more data points (e.g. when these providers reached EHR Go Live, which REC each provider belonged to) as well as highlighting both successes and lessons learned. If we told you that RECs worked mostly with most challenging providers, these numbers look awesome compared to the overall averages.

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Founded in 2010, eRECORDS, Inc. is a Health IT company that provides solutions to Healthcare Enterprises and Practices in helping providers achieve continuous quality and performance improvements. Our vision is to power innovations in healthcare delivery through connected technologies and intelligence. Our mission is to be the trusted expert, guide and partner in achieving meaningful use to make healthcare better, cheaper and accessible. For more information, visit www.eRecords.com